Ministers › Statesman / Official
Gao Lishi
Eunuch confidant of Emperor Xuanzong who screened state papers for decades, followed him to Sichuan in 756, and was banished once the emperor lost power
In the courtyard of a district government hall, a line of petitioners waits before a raised bench with a long table and document boxes; a blue umbrella stands beside it, a large drum stands at the gate where a few people wait, and a lake with sailboats lies beyond.
Also known as Feng Yuanyi · Duke of Bohai
- Roles
- Statesman / Official
Gao Lishi was born into the Feng family of Panzhou, castrated as a boy and sent to the palace in 698 by the Lingnan commissioner Li Qianli; adopted by the eunuch Gao Yanfu, he took the surname Gao. He attached himself to Li Longji while the future emperor was still a prince, and under Xuanzong he ran the Palace Domestic Service, reading memorials from every province before the emperor saw them and settling minor matters himself. Made Duke of Bohai in the Tianbao era, he followed Xuanzong to Sichuan during the An Lushan rebellion and was raised to Duke of Qi. In 760 Li Fuguo had him banished to Wuzhou in Qianzhong circuit. Pardoned in 762, he reached Langzhou on the way back, learned that Xuanzong was dead, and wept facing north, coughing blood until he died. Emperor Daizong gave him the posthumous rank of commander-in-chief of Yangzhou and had him buried beside Xuanzong's Tailing mausoleum.
Life and times
Dates 684 CE–762 CE