Lǐ Délín 李德林
Zì Gōngfǔ 公輔. Native of Bóling 博陵 in Ānpíng 安平 (modern Héběi). Father of 李百藥 (Lǐ Bǎiyào, 565–648). Lifedates 532–592.
Career across three dynasties — Northern Qí, Northern Zhōu, Suí. Under Northern Qí he held Zhōngshū lìng 中書令 and was the principal court historian and zhìzhào 制詔 drafter. After the Northern Qí’s fall in 577 he served Northern Zhōu and helped Yáng Jiān (the future Suí Wéndì) draft the documents of the dynastic transition; under Suí he was Nèishǐ lìng 內史令 (the Suí equivalent of Zhōngshū lìng) and one of the chief architects of the Suí law-code revision and bureaucratic reform.
Began the Běi Qí shū (KR2a0021) under the Northern Qí itself, continued it under the Suí, but died in 592 with the work unfinished. The unfinished manuscripts passed to his son Lǐ Bǎiyào, who completed and presented them under Tang Tàizōng in Zhēnguān 10 (636).
His biographies are in Suí shū 42 (KR2a0023) and Běi shǐ 72 (KR2a0025).