Li Zhiyi

Life

He was associated with Dangtu as his native place, while Cangzhou is also given as an alternative; his ancestral home was Wudi, and his residences included Shanyang and Dangtu. His family included his father, Li Qi; his father-in-law, Hu Su; his wife, Hu Shuxiu; his paternal cousin, Li Zhichun; his son-in-law, Yu Yi; and his eldest son, Li Yaoxing.

In the third year of the Jiayou era (1058), he was listed among the students; his examination status was jinshi, although the year of his degree is given in two ways, as 1052 and as the Yuanfeng period. His recorded appointments included an editor in the Privy Council (樞密院編修), an assistant prefect at Yuanzhou (通判原州), Chaoqing Dafu (朝請大夫), Shangshu Ling (尚書令), supervisor of the Changping and Guanghui Granaries and agricultural-waterworks corvée administration (提舉常平廣惠倉兼管勾農田水利差役事), superintendent of Changping (提舉常平), and supervisor of the Inner Fragrance and Medicine Storehouse (監內香藥庫). The Changping and Guanghui Granaries post was in Henan Prefecture, while the Changping post was in Hebei East Circuit; he also served on Su Shi's staff at Dingzhou.

At the beginning of Huizong's reign, he held the Henan Changping post; after writing a biography for Fan Chunren's memorial, he was placed under restricted residence at Taiping Prefecture and transferred to Tang Prefecture. He was also implicated through his associations with Fan Chunren and Su Shi, entered in the Yuanyou faction register, and struck from the registers.

Literary activity

His writing encompassed book prefaces and postscripts, epitaphs, sacrificial texts, biographies, portrait encomia, explanations of names and style names, and farewell poems or prefaces; he was also a member of a poetry society. He composed prefaces or postscripts for Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, Qin Guan, Mi Fu, Su Shi, and Huang Tingjian, and portrait encomia for Ouyang Xiu, Shen Kuo, Zhe Keshi, and Li Gonglin. His writings include 《姑溪題跋》.