Lǐ Bǎiyào 李百藥
Zì Zhòngguī 重規. Native of Bóling 博陵 in Ānpíng 安平 (modern Héběi). Member of the great Bóling Lǐ 博陵李氏 lineage. Son of 李德林 (Lǐ Délín, 532–592), the Northern-Qí Zhōngshū lìng and unfinished historian of the Northern Qí. CBDB id 92899; lifedates 565–648.
Career across four dynasties — Northern Qí, Northern Zhōu, Suí, Tang. As a child he was a court attendant under Northern Qí Hòuzhǔ. Under Suí he held Mìshū chéng 秘書丞 and was implicated in the Yáng Liàng 楊諒 affair, briefly demoted. Under Tang Tàizōng he held Zhōngshū shèrén 中書舍人, Sànjì chángshì 散騎常侍, Tàizǐ yòu shùzǐ 太子右庶子 (Right Mentor of the Crown Prince Lǐ Chéngqián 李承乾), and finally Zōngzhèng shǎoqīng 宗正少卿. Enfeoffed as Ānpíng nán 安平男.
Inheriting his father Lǐ Délín’s unfinished Northern-Qí history, he was formally commissioned by Tang Tàizōng in Zhēnguān 1 (627), with renewal in Zhēnguān 3 (629) under the unified Wǔdài shǐ programme; he presented the completed Běi Qí shū (KR2a0021) in Zhēnguān 10 (636).
In addition to the Běi Qí shū, he composed substantial poetry (preserved in Quán Táng shī) and the Zàn dào fù 贊道賦, an important early-Tang admonitory text composed for the Crown Prince. His political position was conventional Confucian: his celebrated Fēngjiàn lùn 封建論 (a memorial against any restoration of the fēngjiàn feudal system) was Tang Tàizōng’s principal authority for keeping the centralised jùnxiàn 郡縣 system rather than reverting to enfeoffment.
His biographies are in Jiù Tángshū 72 and Xīn Tángshū 102 (KR2a0026, KR2a0027).