Yang-ts'ui (see under Yen Yüan). Wang's estimate of Li is contained in his dictum that whereas he himself was a conservative, and Yen a radical, Li approached the golden mean (吾近狷, 兄近狷, 李妹夫, 乃近中行). After some two years of a happy married life Wang Chih-shun died early in 1676. Li remarried in 1677 and in the same year became a licentiate with high honors, but declined to take a government stipend, being convinced that such stipends were designed by the Manchus to lure the scholarly class to their régime. By the time he was twenty years of age (1679) he wrote a work on filial piety, entitled 求孝集 Ch'iu-hsiao chi, which perhaps is no longer extant. In the same year (1679) both he and his friend, Li Hsien 李僩 (T. 毅武, 1652–1687), went to study under Yen Yüan who had achieved a high reputation as a philosopher in North China. Li was so impressed with Yen's emphasis on practicality that he abandoned many of his old views to follow him, with the result that Li became the best expositor of Yen's teachings and the one who secured for them the recognition they finally obtained. In imitation of his master he began in 1680 to keep a diary which was later utilized by his two disciples, Fêng Ch'ên 馮辰 (T. 拱北, 樞天) and Liu T'iao-tsan 劉調贊 (T. 用可, b. c. 1700), to compile his chronological biography under the title, 李恕谷先生年譜 Li Shu-ku hsien-shêng nien-p'u, 5 chüan, completed in 1736. In the meantime Li studied medicine and medicinal herbs with a view to supplementing his income. Being interested in practical knowledge, he visited a number of teachers to receive instruction in various fields—in mathematics from Liu Chien-t'ien 劉見田 (1679), in ceremony from Yen Yüan (1680), in playing the lute (琴) from Chang Êr-su 張而素 (T. 函白) in 1680, and in archery from Chao Ssŭ-kuang 趙思光 (T. 錫之) and Wang Jo-chi 汪若紀 (1681). On February 10, 1682 he sponsored a spring festival entertainment in his home to which he invited a number of friends, among them Liu Ch'ung-wên 劉崇文 (T. 煥章, H. 肇南, chü-jên of 1639, d. 1688, age 75 sui), Chang Êr-su, Wang Yang-ts'ui, and Yen Yüan—the last mentioned composing an essay for the occasion, entitled 穀日燕記 Ku-jih Yen-chi. During the ensuing two years (1682–83) Li read extensively works on philosophy, history, military tactics, music, and economics.
As his financial needs became more pressing, Li Kung began in 1683 the life of a private tutor which he carried on with interruptions till 1708. During the years 1683–84 he taught in the home of a fellow-townsman, Chao T'ai-jo 趙太若. In 1685 he accompanied Chang Êr-su to Pao-an (present Cho-lu), Chahar, where the latter was serving as a minor local official. But Chang resigned from the post after a month and Li went (April–May 1685) for the first time to Peking which he later visited some thirty-eight times—the last being in 1727. There he tutored for about four months in the home of a captain named Shên 申. There he made the acquaintance of two Kuo brothers: Kuo Chin-t'ang 郭金湯 (T. 子堅, 鞏庵, 1659–1706) and Kuo Chin-ch'êng 郭金城 (T. 子固, 1660–1700), and toward the close of 1685 he taught the children of Kuo Chin-ch'êng. After a short visit to his native place he returned to the capital (early in 1686) and made the acquaintance of Hsü San-li 許三禮 (T. 典三, H. 酉山, chin-shih of 1661, 1625–1691), and other notables. About this time he began to compile his notes on history which were later published under the title, 閱史郄視 Yüeh-shih ch'i-shih, 4 + 1 chüan. Declining an invitation to teach in the family of Songgotu [q. v.], he returned home at the end of 1686, but went early in the following year (1687) to Peking where he taught in two families, one named I 伊, the other Ch'ên 陳. Preferring to be near his home, he transferred (1687) to the village of P'ang-chia-tsui 龐家蕞, in the district of Kao-yang, Chihli, to teach in the family of Ch'i Huan 齊爟 (T. 燧侯) where he remained until the close of 1688. In the meantime he frequently interviewed his famous teacher, Yen Yüan, and corresponded with scholars—among them Fei Mi [q. v.]. In 1688 he wrote two articles on irrigation and river conservancy, entitled 開東北水利 K'ai tung-pei shui-li and 治河利運 Chih-ho li-yün. These articles were later included in his work, 瘳忘編 Ch'ou-wang pien—a collection of his miscellaneous writings after 1686. Three years later he showed the collection to Yen Yüan, but it seems to be no longer extant. In 1689 he accepted the invitation of his former instructor, Chao Ssŭ-kuang, to teach the latter's four sons in the village of Chao-chia-chuang 趙家莊 in his native district until 1690 when he competed successfully in the Shun-t'ien provincial examination for the degree of chü-jên. In the meantime (1689) he wrote a preface to Yen's work, Ts'un-hsing pien (see under Yen Yüan), and compiled, among others, a work on the classification of errors in moral conduct, entitled 訟過則例 Sung-kuo tsê-li. This treatise, printed in 1695, was based on a similar work,
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