Li Ying

Also known as Zi Yuanli

Li Ying, courtesy name Yuanli, came from Xiangcheng in Yingchuan. He governed Qing province and the commanderies of Yuyang and Shu, beat back Xianbei raids as protector of the Wuhuan, and rose to general on the Liao frontier and governor of Henan. As metropolitan commandant he went after Zhang Shuo, a magistrate and brother of the eunuch Zhang Rang, who had killed a pregnant woman and hidden in a hollow pillar at his brother's house; Li broke the pillar open, took him and had him executed. Scholars he received were said to have leapt the Dragon Gate, and students called him the model for the empire. In 166 he and some two hundred others were jailed on a charge of forming a faction, then released the next year and barred from office for life. When the purge was renewed in 169 he refused advice to flee, saying a subject does not dodge danger or punishment, gave himself up and died under torture, and his family was exiled.