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Li Qi
Late Tang examination graduate who served as a Hanlin academician and chief minister of the Later Liang and later held senior posts under the Later Tang
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 Taixiu
Li Qi, courtesy name Taixiu, was known for his writing as a boy; his official biography says that at thirteen he composed a rhapsody on the Han founder's three worthies with the line that gaining good men brings prosperity. He passed the jinshi examination and the erudite-literatus examination under Emperor Zhaozong of Tang and under the Later Liang became a Hanlin academician, valued as a drafter of edicts. In 920 he was made chief minister with the title vice director of the Secretariat, but after quarrels with his colleague Xiao Qing he was accused of taking favors and demoted to junior guardian of the heir apparent. Under the Later Tang he held posts including minister of justice, censor-in-chief and right vice director of the Department of State Affairs, and submitted memorials on taxation and farming, though errors in his documents brought him reprimands. He retired with an honorary title, died at Luoyang aged sixty, and left a collection titled Jinmen ji.
Life and times
Dates 871 CE–930 CE