Ministers › Remonstrators
Li Pu
Late Northern Song official from Xingguo in Qianzhou who took the jinshi in 1094 and refused to court Cai Jing; under Qinzong he rose to Rector of the Imperial University, and he left the Zhanggong Ji.
At dawn in a palace courtyard, a large drum hangs in a small roofed frame beside a red pillar, with a bound bundle of scrolls on a low stand in front; a stone balustrade leads toward a large hall in the mist, and a row of tiny people stands far away.
Also known as Courtesy name Xianzhi · Zhanggong (name of his collected works)
Li Pu, courtesy name Xianzhi, came from Xingguo in Qianzhou (modern Xingguo, Jiangxi). He took the jinshi in 1094 and served as legal officer at Linjiang, then as instructor at the Western Capital's Imperial University and at Qianzhou. After Emperor Huizong's accession Chen Guan recommended him for an audience, where he criticised the repeated changes of policy since the Xining and Yuanfeng eras, and Cai Jing, who disliked him, repeatedly blocked his career. Under Qinzong he was made Compiler and rose through five promotions in half a year to Rector of the Imperial University. Gaozong named him Director of the Palace Library, but he died before taking up the post, at sixty-five, and was posthumously given the rank of Academician Awaiting Orders of the Baowen Pavilion; his Zhanggong Ji ran to twenty chapters.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; lived to sixty-five; jinshi 1094; died after Gaozong's accession in 1127 CE