Lǐ Yōng 李邕 (678–747)
Zì Tàihé 泰和. Native of Jiāngdū 江都 in Yángzhōu 揚州 (modern Yángzhōu, Jiāngsū). Son of the SuíTáng Wénxuǎn commentator Lǐ Shàn 李善 (d. 689), whose annotated Wénxuǎn zhù 文選注 he is said to have been instrumental in publishing.
A bold and politically combative figure of the Kāiyuán / Tiānbǎo generations. After early service in the Mìshūshěng, he was caught up in the turbulent politics of the late Wǔzhōu and post-705 courts: banished to Húzhōu 湖州 over a dispute with Cuī Shí 崔湜, recalled, then repeatedly banished to provincial cìshǐ posts under Lǐ Línfǔ 李林甫. His final office was Běihǎi tàishǒu 北海太守 (whence the conventional name Lǐ Běihǎi), in modern Wéifāng 濰坊, Shāndōng. In Tiānbǎo 6 (747), at the age of 70, he was beaten to death (tàshā 笞殺) in the Běihǎi magistracy by yùshǐ sent by Lǐ Línfǔ on a corruption charge — a politically motivated murder. Dù Fǔ’s 杜甫 Bā āi shī 八哀詩 (“Eight Laments”) includes him among the eight victims of Kāiyuán / Tiānbǎo political destruction.
Lǐ Yōng was famed in his time for two things: his prose, particularly his bēiwén 碑文 (stele inscriptions), for which he commanded the highest professional rates of any Táng círén; and his calligraphy, second in xíngshū 行書 only to Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之 in the Táng standard reckoning. His extant calligraphic stelae — the Lǐ Sīxùn bēi 李思訓碑 (711, in modern Pǔchéng) and the Lùshān sì bēi 麓山寺碑 (730, in Chángshā) — remain among the principal models of xíngshū. The original 70-juǎn prose collection is largely lost; the surviving 6-juǎn Lǐ Běihǎi jí KR4c0010 is a Míng-period reconstruction.
CBDB confirms 678–747 (cbdbId 31592).