Lǐ Shēn 李紳 (772–846, zì Gōngchuí 公垂), of Bózhōu 亳州 (modern Ānhuī), was jìnshì of Yuánhé 1 (806). He held a series of regional posts and central-court appointments — including Hànlín xuéshì, Yùshǐ zhōngchéng, Hénán yǐn, Huáinán jiédù shǐ — and rose finally under Wǔzōng in Huìchāng (841–846) to zhōngshū shìláng tóng zhōngshū ménxià píngzhāngshì (chief minister), serving on the Lǐ Déyù 李德裕 side of the NiúLǐ factional struggle. Bái Jūyì’s playful line xián yín duǎnLǐ shī (“idly chanting Short-Lǐ’s poems” — a friendly nickname referring to his small stature) is the source of his sobriquet DuǎnLǐ.
With Lǐ Déyù 李德裕 and Yuán Zhěn 元稹, Lǐ Shēn was reckoned one of the Sān jùn 三俊 (“Three Preeminent Talents”) of the Yuánhé generation. He is best known to the general reader for the two Mǐn nóng 憫農 quatrains (“Pity the Peasant” — chú hé rì dāng wǔ and chūn zhǒng yī lì sù) — universally taught in Chinese primary education — though these poems are NOT in his transmitted Zhuīxī yóu jí but circulated independently from anthologies.
Principal work in the corpus: Zhuīxī yóu jí KR4c0066 in 3 juǎn, 101 poems composed before his ministership; the surviving prose corpus is essentially lost. Catalog gives “d. 846”; CBDB id 92982 gives 772–846, used here.