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Li Gang
Song statesman who organised the defence of Kaifeng against the Jin in 1126 and served seventy-five days as chief councillor under Emperor Gaozong
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
Also known as Zi Boji · Shi Zhongding
Li Gang, courtesy name Boji, came from a Shaowu family and passed the jinshi examination in 1112. When floods struck the capital in 1119 he memorialised on misgovernment and was demoted to a tax post at Shaxian. As the Jin armies advanced he wrote a memorial in blood from his own arm urging Emperor Huizong to abdicate in favour of the heir. Early in 1126 he was made assistant chief minister and commander of the field headquarters, and he led soldiers and townsmen in beating off the Jin assault on Kaifeng. Advocates of peace had him dismissed, but when the student Chen Dong led tens of thousands in protest at the palace gates Emperor Qinzong recalled him. In 1127 the new Emperor Gaozong made him chief councillor; he pressed for rebuilding the army, but was dismissed after seventy-five days. He died at Fuzhou in 1140, aged fifty-eight, was later named Zhongding, and left the collected writings *Liangxi ji*.
Life and times
Dates 1083 CE–1140 CE