Lǐ Xiàoměi 李孝美
Northern-Sòng pǔlù author, zì Bóyáng 伯揚. Self-styled “man of Zhàojùn 趙郡” — by Sòng custom this designates the jùnwàng (clan-place) rather than birthplace, so his actual native place cannot be reconstructed; nor are his offices recorded.
His one surviving work, the Mòpǔ fǎshì 墨譜法式 (KR3i0010), is the first systematic monograph on Chinese ink-making — the foundational technical treatise of the mòpǔ (ink-treatise) tradition. The work has prefaces by Mǎ Juān 馬涓 (dated Shàoshèng yǐhài / 1095 month 11 day 20) and by Lǐ Yuányīng 李元膺 of Dōngpíng — the latter records that Lǐ had personally travelled to Lǔshān 魯山 to interview the ink-makers and had gathered nearly a hundred specimens of antique ink — and reproduces 16 historical ink-makers’ marks (including the famous Lǐ Tíngguī 李廷珪 and his father Xī Tíngguī 奚廷珪 of the Southern Táng) together with eleven traditional formulas for glue-and-soot ink. The work shows that he was an ink-connoisseur of serious standing in his time but otherwise no biographical particulars survive. Inferred fl. c. 1095 from the Mǎ Juān preface.