Li Yijian

Li Yijian (李夷簡) (756 – October 13, 822), courtesy name Yizhi (易之), was an official of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Xianzong.

Li Yijian was born in 756. He was a member of Tang Dynasty's imperial Li clan, being a great-great-grandson of Li Yuanyi (李元懿) the Prince of Zheng, a son of Tang's founding emperor Emperor Gaozu. Li Yijian's grandfather Li Chayan (李察言) was not the oldest son of Li Yijian's great-grandfather Li Jing (李璥), who had inherited the title of Prince of Zheng, and therefore did not inherit the title and was not listed with any offices. Li Yijian's father Li Zixian (李自仙) served as a prefectural secretary general. Li Yijian appeared to be Li Zixian's oldest son and had at least three younger brothers, Li Yiliang (李夷亮), Li Yize (李夷則), and Li Yifan (李夷範). Because of Li Yijian's heritage, he was, at the start of his official career, made the secretary general of Zheng County (鄭縣, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi).

In 783, during the reign of Emperor Dezong, a mutiny by Jingyuan Circuit (涇原, headquartered in modern Pingliang, Gansu) at the capital Chang'an forced Emperor Dezong to flee to Fengtian (奉天, in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi). The Jingyuan soldiers supported the general Zhu Ci as their leader, and Zhu initially pretended to be calming the capital and then readying the troops to welcome Emperor Dezong back to Chang'an. He sent an emissary that was going through Hua Prefecture (華州, in modern Weinan), which Zheng County belonged to, and the official in charge of defense, Li Yi (李翼), did not dare stopping Zhu's emissary. However, Li Yijian opined that Zhu would soon turn against Emperor Dezong and pointed out that some of the Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern Beijing) army that previously served under Zhu had been sent to Xiangcheng (襄城, in modern Xuchang, Henan) to help defend it against the warlord Li Xilie; he believed that Zhu was summoning them to Chang'an to assist him. Li Yi thus quickly headed for Tong Pass to have Zhu's emissary searched, and indeed, an order to summon the Lulong soldiers was found. Li Yi reported this to the defender of Tong Pass, Luo Yuanguang (駱元光), who executed Zhu's emissary and submitted Zhu's order to Emperor Dezong. Emperor Dezong thus made Luo the prefect of Hua Prefecture, but as Luo took the entire credit for the incident, LI Yijian was not rewarded.

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