Ministers › Chief Ministers
Li Xian
Ming grand secretary from Dengzhou who led the cabinet throughout the Tianshun reign and survived being cut down by Cao Qin's rebels in 1461
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 Yuande
- Roles
- Chief Ministers
Li Xian, courtesy name Yuande, came from Dengzhou in Henan, headed the provincial examination list and became a jinshi in 1433. In 1451 he sent the Jingtai emperor ten proposals on the foundations of rule and was promoted vice minister of personnel. When Emperor Yingzong regained the throne in 1457 he entered the Grand Secretariat as a Hanlin academician alongside Xu Youzhen; despite repeated attacks from Shi Heng and Cao Jixiang he led the cabinet for the whole of the Tianshun reign. During Cao Qin's rising in 1461 the rebels attacked and wounded him in the court offices and forced him to draft a memorial for them; afterwards the emperor made him grand guardian of the heir. He was called back to duty while mourning his father in 1466 and died that winter at fifty-eight. His Tianshun Diary (Tianshun rilu) is criticised in the Ming History for calling the Jingtai emperor dissolute, though that emperor had raised him to office.
Life and times
Dates 1408 CE–1467 CE