Li Ao , courtesy name
Xizhi (习之), was Chinese philosopher and
proseProse is the ordinary form of written language. The word "prose" is derived from the Latin prosa, which literally translates to "straightforward". Prose is adopted for the discussion of facts and topical reading, as it is often articulated in free form writing style...
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
of the
Tang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
. He was born in present-day
Tianshui, GansuTianshui is the second largest city in Gansu province in northwest China. Its population is approximately 3,500,000.Tianshui lies along the route of the ancient Northern Silk Road, through which much of trade occurred between China and the west...
, but some accounts relates he was from
Zhao, HebeiZhao County , a historic town called Zhaozhou in the past, is located in Hebei 40 km southeast of the provincial capital Shijiazhuang, and 280 km south of Beijing. Its total land area is 675 km² and total population is around 550,000...
. After achieving the degree of Jinshi in 798, he joined the imperial bureaucracy and served in the history department at Changan.
In 809, he was assigned to the southern provinces and made the trip with his pregnant wife from
LuoyangLuoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province, People's Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the...
to
GuangzhouGuangzhou , in English formerly known as Canton and also known as Kwangchow, is a sub-provincial city and the capital of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China.It is a port on the Pearl River,...
over nine months.
Li Ao , courtesy name
Xizhi (习之), was Chinese philosopher and
proseProse is the ordinary form of written language. The word "prose" is derived from the Latin prosa, which literally translates to "straightforward". Prose is adopted for the discussion of facts and topical reading, as it is often articulated in free form writing style...
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
of the
Tang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
. He was born in present-day
Tianshui, GansuTianshui is the second largest city in Gansu province in northwest China. Its population is approximately 3,500,000.Tianshui lies along the route of the ancient Northern Silk Road, through which much of trade occurred between China and the west...
, but some accounts relates he was from
Zhao, HebeiZhao County , a historic town called Zhaozhou in the past, is located in Hebei 40 km southeast of the provincial capital Shijiazhuang, and 280 km south of Beijing. Its total land area is 675 km² and total population is around 550,000...
. After achieving the degree of Jinshi in 798, he joined the imperial bureaucracy and served in the history department at Changan.
In 809, he was assigned to the southern provinces and made the trip with his pregnant wife from
LuoyangLuoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province, People's Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the...
to
GuangzhouGuangzhou , in English formerly known as Canton and also known as Kwangchow, is a sub-provincial city and the capital of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China.It is a port on the Pearl River,...
over nine months. The course they took included the modern provinces of
HenanHenan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the eastern central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is 豫 , named after Yuzhou Province , a Han Dynasty province that included parts of Henan...
,
AnhuiAnhui is a province of the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
,
Jiangsu' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou...
,
ZhejiangZhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
,
Jiangxi' is a southern province of the People's Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south....
and
GuangdongGuangdong is a province on the southern coast of People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
. His record of the trip, the
Lainan Lu (来南录, "Record of Coming to the South"), contains detailed descriptions of medieval southern China and is considered one of the earliest forms of the diary.
At the time of his death in
Xiangyang, HubeiXiangyang District is a district of Xiangfan, Hubei, China. It was a city famous for the Siege of Xiangyang by invading forces of the Mongol-founded Yuan Dynasty. It was also an important city during the period of the Three Kingdoms, in the Romance of Three Kingdoms it was said that it was nearby...
, Li held the position of Governor of East Shannan Circuit (now
Hubei' is a central province of the People's Republic of China. Its abbreviation is 鄂 , an ancient name associated with the eastern part of the province since the Qin Dynasty. The name Hubei means "north of the lake", referring to Hubei's position north of Lake Dongting...
and
HenanHenan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the eastern central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is 豫 , named after Yuzhou Province , a Han Dynasty province that included parts of Henan...
). There is some debate about the year of his death. The
Book of TangThe Book of Tang Jiu Tangshu or the Old Book of Tang is the first classic work about the Tang Dynasty. The book began when Gaozu of Later Jin ordered its commencement in 941...
gives the date of 841. While the
Qing DynastyThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
historians, however, have argued that it should be 836.
Late imperial scholars regarded Li as the founder of one of the ten great schools of philosophy in the Tang and
SongThe Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
dynasties. As a philosopher, Li was heavily influenced by
BuddhismBuddhism, as traditionally conceived, is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. It encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha...
and also the great neo-Confucian
Han YuHan Yu , born in Nanyang, Henan, China, was a precursor of Neo-Confucianism as well as an essayist and poet, during the Tang dynasty. The Indiana Companion calls him "comparable in stature to Dante, Shakespeare or Goethe" for his influence on the Chinese literary tradition...
. His extensive writings are preserved in the
Liwengong Wenji (李文公文集). This work is presumably a later edition of the ten chapters of the
Li Ao Ji (李翱集) as referenced in the
New Book of TangThe New Book of Tang , is a classic work of history about the Tang Dynasty edited by Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi and other official scholars of the Song Dynasty. The emperor called for a revision of the former Book of Tang in 1044. The New Book was presented to the throne in 1060. It was given its...
. Some of the few poems he produced can also be found in the
Quan Tang Shi (全唐诗).