Li Pin

Life

In his youth, Li Pin was bright and gifted, studied diligently, and excelled at poetry; during the Kaicheng period he befriended Fang Gan, a fellow townsman. Yao He was renowned for poetry, and Li traveled a thousand li to study with him and seek his critical judgment; Yao strongly encouraged him and married his daughter to Li, becoming his father-in-law. Li also exchanged poems and prose with Wei Chan, Xu Hun, and Xu Tang, among others, and received such works from Luo Yin and Zheng Gu, among others.

In the eighth year of the Dazhong era (854), he passed the jinshi examination, was appointed xiaoshulang, and joined the Qianzhong headquarters; after it ended, he returned east and became nanling zhubu. His judgments were ranked in the examination, after which he became magistrate of Wugong; his offices also included assistant magistrate of Yiwu and a prefectural governorship.

Early in the Xiantong era he served as a canjun in Jingzhao Prefecture and presided over its examination; the post is also given as canjun of Chizhou. He was then promoted to shiyushi and, by the end of Xiantong, served as duguan yuanwailang.

In the second year of the Qianfu era (875), Li Pin became governor of Jianzhou. He governed through ritual and law, promulgated regulations, and was credited with capable administration, so that the people found security. He died in office the following year. After his death, the people of Jianzhou built a temple at Lishan, honored the mountain as Yue, and sacrificed there annually.

Poetry

Li Pin excelled in poetry, especially regulated verse; he worked through painstaking composition and careful polishing, and regulated pentasyllabic verse forms the greater part of his collection. Later critics described his poetry as restrained and graceful yet spirited, noted its forceful lines, compared its form with that of Liu Suizhou, and found an affinity with Yao He; a couplet on Princess Taihe’s return to the palace and several other five-character lines were judged capable of standing alongside the Ten Talents.

Works and transmission

Li Pin’s poetry was listed as a one-juan work. A facsimile of a Ming manuscript in the Sibu congkan sanbian preserves the collection under the title Liyue shiji, later circulated as Liyue ji. The titles Jianzhou cishi ji and Li Pin ji also occur in the transmitted bibliography; the Complete Tang Poems includes three juan of his poetry, while the corpus is also described as three juan plus two poems, and the Complete Tang Poems Supplement and Continued Supplement add three poems and two fragments.