紀過格 Chi-kuo ko, by Liu Tsung-chou [q. v.]. Failing in the metropolitan examination in 1691, Li taught in the following two years in the home of another neighbor, Yen Chung-k'uan 閻中寬 (T. 公度, H. 易菴, chin-shih of 1679, d. age 72 sui).
In 1695 Li was invited by Kuo Chin-t'ang to T'ung-hsiang, Chekiang, where Kuo was a district magistrate. Several of Li's works were printed there, including the above-mentioned Sung-kuo tsê-li with a preface by Wang Fu-li 王復禮 (T. 需人, H. 草堂), dated 1695. Returning to his native place in the same year (1695) he went to Peking (1696) where he taught for another year in the home of Kuo Chin-ch'êng. In 1697 he was again invited by Kuo Chin-t'ang to T'ung-hsiang, remaining there until 1699. During his stay in T'ung-hsiang he advised Kuo on local problems, studied music (1698) under Mao Ch'i-ling [q. v.], wrote among other works a treatise on the Great Learning, entitled 大學辨業 Ta-hsüeh pien-yeh, which was printed in 1701, and married a Hangchow girl, Wang Fêng-ku 王鳳姑 or 呂素娟 (d. 1706, age 24 sui), who bore him two sons, Li Hsi-jên 李習仁 (T. 長人, childhood name 隆官, 1699–1721) and Li Hsi-chung 李習中 (childhood name 在官, b. 1702). On his way home with his family in 1699 he paid a visit to Yen Jo-chü [q. v.] at Huaian, Kiangsu. In 1700, while visiting Peking, he accepted the offer to teach in the family of Wu Han 吳涵 (T. 容大, H. 匪菴, chin-shih of 1682, d. c. 1709). There he met a number of scholars, among them Wang Yüan, Chin Tê-ch'un, Wan Ssŭ-t'ung, and Hu Wei [qq. v.]. In June–July 1700 he was invited by Yü Ching 于鯨 (T. 南溟, d. 1701) to Yingchou, Shansi, where the latter was serving as a local official. Then he returned home and wrote a work on the training of children which he entitled, 小學稽業 Hsiao-hsüeh chi-yeh, 5 chüan. In the autumn of the same year (1700) he was once more invited to teach the children of Wu Han at Peking where he stayed until the close of 1700. About this period, too, he wrote several articles on ancient ceremony.
Li's work on music had in the meantime been printed by Mao Ch'i-ling under the title 李氏學樂錄, Li-shih hsüeh-yüeh lu, 2 chüan, and it was later copied into the Ssŭ-k'u Manuscript Library (see under Chi Yün). After a short visit to his native place he continued his teaching (1701) in the home of Wu Han and wrote, among other works, an essay denouncing Buddhism which he entitled 闢佛論 P'i-Fo lun. Through the financial assistance of Wu Han and Hsü Ping-i (see under Hsü Ch'ien-hsüeh) he was able to print several of his works, among them the above-mentioned Ta-hsüeh pien-yeh and 聖經學規纂 Shêng-ching hsüeh-kuei tsuan, 2 chüan—the latter a work on the system of education advocated in the Classics, with a preface by himself dated 1698. By this time (1701) he had won such a reputation that Wan Ssŭ-t'ung invited him to lecture in Peking on the teachings of the sages. Returning in 1701 to his native place, he lectured to his disciples on the Doctrine of the Mean (Chung-yung)—the substance of these lectures being later brought together by Ch'ên Jui-an 陳叡庵 under the title 恕谷中庸講語 Shu-ku Chung-yung chiang-yü. Thereupon he taught for half a year (1702) in the home of Wang Shao-hsien 王紹先 in the neighboring district of Su-ning. But that same year he returned to Peking where he made the acquaintance of Wên Tê-yü 温德裕 (T. 益修, chü-jên of 1672). After a brief visit to his home he returned (early in 1703) to Peking and there gave more lectures. He was introduced by Wang Yüan to Fang Pao [q. v.] in whose residence he often stayed on his subsequent visits to the capital.
In April–May 1703 he returned to his native place and was later joined by Wang Yüan whom he introduced to Yen Yüan, thus establishing between these two a lasting friendship. In 1704 he went to Yen-ch'êng, Honan, to advise the district magistrate, Wên Tê-Yü, in matters of local administration, but hearing that his great teacher, Yen Yüan, had died (September 30, 1704) he went home and set up at Po-yeh a shrine to him which he called Hsi-chai Hsüeh-shê 習齋學舍. After another brief sojourn in Yen-ch'êng in the following year (1705), he returned home to complete the chronological biography of his teacher, under the title, Yen Hsi-chai hsien-shêng nien-p'u (see under Yen Yüan). In 1706 he made three more trips to Peking, mainly to look after the printing blocks of his works, Ta-hsüeh pien-yeh and Shêng-ching hsüeh-kuei tsuan, which were in the custody of Wu Han who had resigned his post and left Peking. During the years 1707–08 Li taught in the home of a neighbor, Li Chih-an 李止庵, who lived in the village of Hsin-ch'iao 新(or 辛)橋. In the meantime he made brief visits to Peking (1707) to supervise the printing of the above-mentioned nien-p'u, and to Paoting (1708) to visit Wang Yüan [q. v.] whose work, P'ing-shu, he re-edited in the same year under the title P'ing-shu ting, 14 chüan. On June 8, 1709 he
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