Li Shen
Tang dynasty official and poet
Li Shen (李紳) (died July 29, 846), courtesy name Gongchui (公垂), formally Duke Wensu of Zhao (趙文肅公), was a Chinese historian, military general, poet, and politician of the Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Wuzong.
Background
It is not known when Li Shen was born. His family claimed ancestry from the southern branch of the prominent Li clan of Zhao Commandery (趙郡, roughly modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei), but was only able to trace its ancestry back to the Northern Wei official Li Shanquan (李善權) and Li Shanquan's descendants who served as officials of Northern Wei and Sui dynasty. Li Shen's great-grandfather Li Jingxuan served as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Gaozong, and his great-granduncle Li Yuansu served as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Gaozong's wife Wu Zetian. Both Li Shen's grandfather Li Shouyi (李守一) and father Li Wu (李晤) served as county magistrates. In Li Wu's case, he served three times at Jintan (金壇, in modern Changzhou, Jiangsu), Wucheng (烏程, in modern Huzhou, Jiangsu), and Jinling (晉陵, in modern Changzhou as well). He therefore settled his family in the region, at Wuxi.
Li Shen was five years old when Li Wu died, and he therefore was raised by his mother Lady Lu, who taught him the Confucian classics. It was said that Li Shen was short in stature but energetic, and was capable in songs and poetry. The year that he submitted himself to the local preliminary round of the imperial examinations, his poems became well known in the region.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Li Shen” is tang dynasty official and poet. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Shen, Tang and dynasty, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “tang dynasty official and poet” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 24, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6539062. VIAF identifies the subject as 38200449. The Library of Congress control number is n79118745. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Li Shen”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Li Shen primary sources, Li Shen archive and Shen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Li Shen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.