By 692, Emperor Gaozong's wife
Wu Zetian was reigning as "emperor" of her new Zhou dynasty, interrupting Tang dynasty. That year, her secret police official
Lai Junchen had falsely accused the
chancellors
Ren Zhigu,
Di Renjie, and
Pei Xingben, along with other officials Cui Xuanli (崔宣禮), Lu Xian (盧獻),
Wei Yuanzhong, and Li Sizhen (李嗣真) of treason. As these officials were set for execution, Wu Zetian had Li Jiao, along with two other officials, Zhang Deyu (張德裕) and Liu Xian (劉憲), review the cases. Zhang and Liu knew that the accusations were false, but feared Lai, and therefore initially failed to object to the judgments. Li Jiao advocated that they did, and so the three filed written objections. As a result, they offended Wu Zetian, and she demoted him to be the military advisor to the prefect of Run Prefecture (潤州, roughly modern
Zhenjiang,
Jiangsu). (The officials, however, were still spared after Di was able to secretly deliver a petition proclaiming his innocence to Wu Zetian.) After some time, Li Jiao was recalled to serve as
Fengge Sheren (鳳閣舍人), a mid-level official at the legislative bureau of government (鳳閣,
Fengge), and he became largely responsible for drafting imperial edicts. While serving in that office, in 697, when
Eastern Tujue's khan
Ashina Mochuo made a request for Zhou to return Tujue people who had previously submitted to Tang and also to grant a number of supplies that he needed, Li Jiao lodged an objection against the recommendation of the chancellors
Yao Shu and
Yang Zaisi to comply, but Wu Zetian still granted Ashina Mochuo's requests. Later that year, he took over the selection of officials at the ministry of civil service affairs (春官部,
Chunguan Bu) on an acting basis, and he began establishing a list of reserve officials who would draw salaries from the imperial treasury. Also around that time, Wu Zetian had established an imperial censorate to review local government affairs (右御史臺), which would send out censors to examine the local government affairs, leaving the capital
Luoyang in the third month of the lunar year and returning in the 11th month to report on findings. Li Jiao, believing that the time was insufficient, suggested dividing the empire into 20 circuits so that the censors had smaller areas to review. Wu Zetian initially agreed, but after opposition by other officials, did not carry out Li Jiao's proposal. As of 698, Li Jiao was serving as
Mishu Shaojian (秘書少監), the deputy head of the
Palace Library, when he was given the designation
Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi (同鳳閣鸞臺平章事), making him a chancellor
de facto. In 700, Wu Zetian, in order to give her lovers
Zhang Yizhi and
Zhang Changzong legitimacy in their entries into the palace, had Li Jiao head a project to create a work known as the
Essence of Pearls from the Three Religions (三教珠英,
Sanjiao Zhuying) – a compilation of various poetry about
Confucianism,
Buddhism, and
Taoism – and had Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong involved in the project as well. Later that year, after Wu Zetian named Li Jiao's uncle
Zhang Xi as a chancellor, Li Jiao, who was by this point serving also as
Luantai Shilang (鸞臺侍郎), the deputy head of the examination bureau (鸞臺,
Luantai), had his chancellor designation removed, because Wu Zetian did not want uncle and nephew to serve as chancellors at the same time. Li Jiao was instead made
Chengjun Jijiu (成均祭酒), the principal of the imperial university. By 702, Li Jiao was serving as deputy to the chancellor
Wei Juyuan, who was serving as official in charge of Luoyang while Wu Zetian was at the western capital
Chang'an, when Wu Zetian summoned Wei to Chang'an and had Li Jiao take over the responsibility at Luoyang. By 703, when Wu Zetian changed the name of the executive bureau from
Wenchang Tai (文昌臺) to
Zhongtai (中臺), Li Jiao was serving as
Zhongtai Zuo Cheng (中臺左丞), when he was made acting
Nayan (納言), the head of the examination bureau and a post considered one for a chancellor. In 704, in response to the problem that imperial officials were not willing to be local officials, Li Jiao and fellow chancellor
Tang Xiujing suggested that the officials at the central government be assigned to the prefectures and counties to serve as officials, offering to go first themselves. Wu Zetian had 20 officials randomly drawn, and neither Li Jiao nor Tang was sent out. Later in 704, Li Jiao was made acting
Neishi (內史), the head of the legislative bureau and also a post considered one for a chancellor. Also in 704, when Wu Zetian instituted a tax on the Buddhist monks and nuns of the realm to build a large Buddha statute, Li Jiao and Zhang Tinggui (張廷珪) opposed the project, and Wu Zetian eventually stopped it. Li Jiao then requested to be relieved of
Neishi duties, and was given the chancellor designation
Tong Fengge Luantai Sanpin (同鳳閣鸞臺三品). Late in the year, he was removed of chancellor duties altogether, becoming minister of the treasury (地官尚書,
Diguan Shangshu) instead. == During Emperor Zhongzong's second reign ==