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Li Fang
Early Northern Song chief minister who directed the compilation of the great compendia Taiping Yulan, Taiping Guangji and Wenyuan Yinghua.
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 Mingyuan · Shi Wenzheng
Li Fang, courtesy name Mingyuan, from Raoyang in Shenzhou, passed the jinshi examination under the Later Han, served the Later Zhou, and twice became chief minister under the Song, receiving the posthumous name Wenzheng. At Emperor Taizong's command he directed the compilation of the Taiping Yulan, Taiping Guangji and Wenyuan Yinghua, which preserve a vast body of pre-Song writing and tales. Stories behind idioms such as 'acting as the tiger's ghostly servant' survive through these compendia.
Life and times
- 925 CEBorn
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
Song - 996 CEDied
Works
Literature · Fables2- Serving as the Tiger's Ghostly AccompliceSongLegend in the Taiping Guangji: those eaten by tigers become ghosts that lead the tiger to prey
- Asking the Tiger for Its SkinSongFable from the Fuzi in the Taiping Yulan: asking the fox for its fur, the sheep for its meat
- Literature · Sayings1
- Serving as the Tiger's Ghostly AccompliceSongIdiom from the legend of tiger-ghosts: victims turned servants of the beast