Lǐ Xīnchuán 李心傳 (1167–1244), zì Wēizhī 微之, hào Xiùyán 秀巖, of Lóngzhōu 隆州 in central Sìchuān (modern Réngshòu county). Author of two foundational Southern-Sòng historiographical works: the 200-juan Jiànyán yǐlái xìnián yàolù 建炎以來繫年要錄 (a chronicle covering 1127–1162) and the 40-juan Jiànyán yǐlái cháoyě zájì 建炎以來朝野雜記 (court-and-private affairs miscellany, same period).
Career-distinctive in that he never took the jìnshì. Entry to office came in Bǎoqìng 2 (1226) by bùyī zhào 布衣召 (commoner-summons), placing him as Cóngzhèng láng 從政郎 (sub-official), detached to Mìgé jiàokān 秘閣校勘 (Imperial Library Collation Officer). Subsequently rose to Gōngbù shìláng 工部侍郎 (Vice-Minister of Works) concurrent with Mìshūjiān 秘書監 (Director of the Imperial Library) — the highest honor a non-jìnshì could attain in the Southern Sòng. Was the principal official-historian of the Southern-Sòng court for the entire late period.
Father: Lǐ Shùnchén 李舜臣 — author of a Yì běn zhuàn 易本傳, no longer extant in independent transmission but partly preserved through citation in his son Lǐ Xīnchuán’s Bǐngzǐ Xué Yì biān and in Féng Yǐ’s Hòuzhāi Yì xué (KR1a0046).
Catalog-vs-external dating: the Kanripo catalog meta gives 1166–1243; CBDB id 10831 and the Sòngshǐ (juan 438, Rúlín zhuàn) give 1167–1244. The 1167–1244 dating is followed here per the project rule. The catalog’s offset-by-one-year plausibly arises from a suì-counting variant.
Within the Kanripo corpus he is the author of KR1a0050 Bǐngzǐ Xué Yì biān 丙子學易編 — originally 15 juan; the Sìkù base preserves Yú Yǎn 俞琰’s hand-copy extract amounting to roughly 1/10 of the original.
Lǐ Xīnchuán is one of the most important Sòng-period chroniclers, comparable in scope and reliability to Sīmǎ Guāng’s Zīzhì tōngjiàn for his period. Modern scholarship (Charles Hartman, John Chaffee, Tao Jing-shen) treats him as a major historiographical figure; his canonical-studies side, by contrast, is less recovered.