Late-Táng 唐 scholar and Daoist commentator, active c. 810 CE, author of the [[KR5c0075|Dàodé zhēn jīng xīn zhù 道德真經新註]] (DZ 692) — a distinctive late-Táng commentary on the Dàodé jīng.
Dates. No precise lifedates. Schipper & Verellen (2004, 1:288) give fl. 810. Multiple Lǐ Yuē candidates appear in CBDB for the late Táng (personids 174355, 187987, 188178); the middle candidate 187987 (estimated death 803 per Tackett) is the likeliest identification given the fl. 810 date, though the identification remains uncertain — the Lǐ Yuē praised in Liǔ Zōngyuán’s 柳宗元 Liǔ Hé dōng jí 10:158–159 may be the same person, and the CBDB 174355 entry (estimated death 794) is also a candidate.
Known work. His only known surviving work is the Dàodé zhēn jīng xīn zhù (DZ 692) in four juàn — a late-Táng commentary notable for its distinctive re-punctuation of Lǎozǐ chapter 25 (the “four Greats” passage) and for its explicitly Confucian-Daoist integrative framing (“the Six Classics are the branches and leaves of the HuángLǎo tradition”). See the main work note at KR5c0075.
The commentary is dated to the Táng on the testimony of Péng Sì 彭耜 and Dǒng Sījìng 董思靖, both of whom cite it as a Táng work in the mid-13th century. It is also quoted (at DZ 692 4.6b) in Chén Jǐngyuán’s 陳景元 DZ 714 Cáng shì zuǎn wēi piān 9.11a, confirming its circulation in the Northern Sòng. The reading Lǐ Nà 李納 in Tōng zhì 通志 “Yì wén lüè” 5.1b is probably a textual error for Lǐ Yuē.
Philosophical orientation. Daoist, with a pronounced zhì shēn 治身 (self-cultivation) emphasis and Confucian-integrative rhetoric. The commentary treats the Dàodé jīng as “the art of purifying the heart, nourishing the breath, securing the household, and preserving the state” — a notably practical, political, and ethical reading in contrast to the more metaphysical-Chóngxuán readings of Chéng Xuányīng 成玄英 and the Xuánxué 玄學 commentators.
CBDB: 187987 (tentative).