Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties · Hermit and Scholar

Li Shiqian 李士謙

Died AD 588

Passages
34
Chapters
2
Histories
2

Overview

The translated histories identify Li Shiqian as a hermit, official, poet, and scholar. This record brings together 34 passages from 2 chapters across 2 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

TypeEnglishChinesePinyin
Personal Li Shiqian 李士謙 Li Shiqian
Surname Li 李 Li
Personal name Li Shiqian 李士謙 Li Shiqian
Title Registrar Li 李參軍 Li Canjun
Alternate name Shiqian 士謙 Shiqian
Given Shiqian 士謙 Shiqian
Personal name Shiqian 士謙 Shìqiān
Courtesy name Ziyue 子約 Ziyue

Identity

Historicity
Historical
Identification
Named
Sex
Male

Roles

  • Hermit
  • Official
  • Poet
  • Scholar

Life and dates

Death

Age

  • Age: 66 · Reckoning: sui · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 開皇八年 · Western Year: AD 588
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0085

Attested activity

  • Western Interval: Start: AD 581 · End: AD 618 · Source Date: Text: 史臣曰
    Explicit event contextual date · suishu:077:s0252, suishu:077:s0253
  • Source Date: Text: 年十二 · Western Interval: Start: AD 534 · End: AD 550
    Explicit event contextual date · suishu:077:s0024
  • Source Date: Text: 與趙郡李士謙為忘言友 · Western Interval: Start: AD 550 · End: AD 581
    Explicit · beishi:088:s0104
  • Source Date: Text: 開皇八年 · Western Year: AD 588
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0085
  • Source Date: Text: 隋有天下 · Western Year: AD 581
    Explicit event contextual date · suishu:077:s0032

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

  • Sibling of Elder Sister of Li Shiqian
    Kinship Term: elder sister / 姊 · Subject Relative Age: elder · Subject Role: elder-sister · Object Role: younger-brother
  • Child of Father of Li Shiqian
    Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
  • Child of Mother of Li Shiqian
    Kinship Term: mother / 母 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: mother · Object Role: son
  • Kin of Yang (瑒)
    Kinship Term: paternal uncle / 伯父 · Subject Role: paternal-uncle · Object Role: nephew · Line: paternal
  • Spouse of Lady Lu (盧氏)
    Kinship Term: wife / 妻 · Union Category: marriage
  • Spouse of Lady Lu (盧氏)
    Kinship Term: wife / 妻 · Union Category: marriage · Relationship State: widowed
  • Kinship Role: sons · Quantity: plural · Note: referred to as 吾子 in plural
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0063

Career and standing

  • Label: Record Keeper of the Prince's Household Staff / 開府參軍事 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 年十二 · Western Interval: Start: AD 534 · End: AD 550
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0024
  • Label: Director of the Imperial Academy / 國子祭酒 · Action: refused
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0030, suishu:077:s0031
  • Label: Supernumerary Gentleman / 員外郎 · Action: refused
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0029
  • Status: recluse · Label: recluse / 隱 · Action: held
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0252
  • Status: never-took-office · Action: maintained · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 隋有天下 · Western Year: AD 581 · Negated: false
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0032

Places and affiliations

Learning and skills

Works and attributed material

Events and relationships

  • Kind: charity · Role: benefactor · Action: buried unclaimed bones; distributed seed in spring
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0057, suishu:077:s0058
  • Kind: religious · Role: donor · Action: converted house to Buddhist monastery
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0027
  • Kind: charity · Role: benefactor · Action: exhausted resources making gruel in famine; nearly ten thousand saved
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0056
  • Kind: charity · Role: benefactor · Action: lent grain and burned contracts; later refused repayment
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0051, suishu:077:s0052, suishu:077:s0053, suishu:077:s0055
  • Kind: personal · Role: subject · Action: renounced-office-and-fulfilled-resolve-in-reclusion · Label: forgot official caps and robes and fulfilled resolve in field and garden / 忘懷纓冕，畢志丘園
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0252
  • Relation: friend-of · Person Id: Cui Kuo (崔廓)
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0098

Assessments and attributes

  • Assessment: embraced simplicity · Label: man who embraced simplicity / 抱樸之士 · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0253
  • Assessment: grasped the substance of good government · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0084
  • Assessment: heard praise and was not pleased · Label: hearing praise, was not pleased / 聞譽不喜 · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0253
  • Assessment: natural pure virtue enabling ideal reclusion · Label: natural pure virtue / 自然之純德 · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0252
  • Kind: dietary-practice · Statement: never drank wine or ate meat after being orphaned young
    Explicit · suishu:077:s0033

References in the histories

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

History of the Northern Dynasties, Chapter 88Volume 88 Biographies 76: Recluses · 5 passages
Open chapter
Book of Sui, Chapter 77Volume 77 Biographies 42: Recluses · 29 passages
Open chapter
士謙等忘懷纓冕，畢志丘園，隱不違親，貞不絕俗，不教而勸，虛往實歸，愛之如父母，懷之如親戚，非有自然之純德，其孰能至於斯乎？ Shiqian and the others forgot official caps and robes, fulfilled their resolve in field and garden, lived in reclusion without violating kinship, were steadfast without cutting themselves off from the world, urged without teaching, went forth empty and returned full; people loved them as parents and cherished them as kin—without natural pure virtue, who could reach this?