Li Bi (李泌) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Li Bi as an official and statesman. This record brings together 3 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Li Bi	李泌	Li Bi

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · xintangshu:055:s0139

Roles

Official
Statesman

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 建中三年之後 · Western Interval: Start: AD 787 · End: AD 789
Strongly inferred · xintangshu:055:s0138, xintangshu:055:s0139
Source Date: Text: 李泌增百官俸 · Western Interval: Start: AD 787 · End: AD 789
Explicit event contextual date · xintangshu:055:s0150

Career and standing

Label: Chancellor / 宰相 · Action: held
Explicit · xintangshu:055:s0139

Places and affiliations

Polity: Tang / 唐 · Relation: served
Explicit event contextual date · xintangshu:055:s0139

Events and relationships

Kind: political · Role: chancellor · Action: increased monthly salaries and restored hand-attendant assessments
Explicit · xintangshu:055:s0139
Kind: fiscal · Role: policy-maker · Action: instituted Household Ministry Discount Fee of twenty cash per string
Explicit · xintangshu:055:s0143

Source notes

Historicity: historical
Explicit · xintangshu:055:s0139
Statement: After his salary increase, contemporaries thought salaries could not be reduced
Explicit · xintangshu:055:s0150

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

New Book of Tang, Chapter 55Volume 55 Treatises 51: Finance and Economics 4 · 3 passages

Open chapter

李泌為相，又增百官及畿內官月俸，復置手力資課，歲給錢六十一萬六千余緡，文官千八百九十二員，武官八百九十六員。 Chancellor Li Bi then restored and raised monthly pay for officials throughout the capital region, reinstated attendant-service assessments, and spent more than 616,000 strings a year on 1,892 civil and 896 military posts.

李泌以度支有兩稅錢，鹽鐵使有筦榷錢，可以擬經費，中外給用，每貫墊二十，號「戶部除陌錢」。 Li Bi treated the Revenue Bureau's two-tax receipts and the Salt and Iron Commissioner's monopoly receipts as funds that could meet current expenses. For disbursements inside and outside the capital, twenty cash were deducted from every string, a levy known as the "Household Ministry Discount Fee."

自李泌增百官俸，當時以為不可朘削矣，然有名存而職廢、額去而俸在者。 After Li Bi's raise many believed salaries could never be cut again, yet titles lingered after duties vanished and pay continued after posts were abolished.