set out for Fu-p'ing, Shensi, to assist the local magistrate, Yang Ch'in 楊勤 (T. 愼修). There he quickly demonstrated his administrative ability and won such a reputation that numerous officials came to seek his advice on local problems. After a short visit to his native place, early in 1710, he returned on April 5 to Fu-p'ing and remained until October 8 when he resigned.
Though Li Kung kept a diary, the material covering the period 1711–14 is reported in his nien-p'u as missing. This may be due to the fact that during those years he was indirectly concerned in the trial of a certain Chang Wan-tsai 張萬載 who was arrested in 1715 on a charge of fostering a seditious movement. During the trial Chang named as his friends Li Kung and two of Li's followers, Yang Jên-chu 楊仁澍 and Wang Tzŭ-p'ei 王子丕. When the case terminated in 1716, Chang was executed, Yang Jên-shu and Wang Tzŭ-p'ei were banished, but Li was not molested owing to his evident integrity. In the meantime Li went (1712) to assist Chang Tao 張燾, then prefect of Tsinan, but soon returned home when he discovered that the prefect was incompetent. Early in 1713 he went to Peking to supervise the printing of his commentary on the Classic of Changes, 周易傳注 Chou-i chuan-chu, 7 +1 chüan, on which he had worked intermittently in the years 1703–12. This work was later copied into the Ssŭ-k'u Manuscript Library. In 1714 he made the acquaintance of Yün Ho-shêng 惲鶴生 (T. 皋聞, chü-jên of 1708, d. age 79 sui) who was then tutor in the family of P'u Fêng-ch'ao 浦鳳巢, magistrate of Li-hsien. Thereafter Yün became an ardent advocate of the teachings of Yen Yüan and Li Kung and introduced their views to South China.
Having in the meantime applied for a position in the government (1717), Li was appointed in the following year department director of schools at T'ung-chou, Chihli, but he soon resigned owing to illness. Returning home in 1719, he made a trip to south Chihli in order to spread his doctrines. In 1720 he went to Peking to discuss with Fang Pao the possibility of exchanging his own property in Li-hsien for property which Fang owned in Nanking. Li wanted to make his home in South China where he hoped to find better response to his teachings. Fang Pao, then a bond-servant in the Imperial Household, had no hope of returning to Nanking and so agreed to the proposal. Li Kung and his son, Li Hsi-jên, set out for Nanking on November 19, 1720 to make a preliminary survey of Fang's property, and returned early in the following year (1721). It seems that Li agreed to the exchange, but gave up the plan when he heard that his son had died while making a second trip to Nanking (1721).
Thereafter, except for a few short trips to Paoting and to Peking, Li spent most of his time in his native place devoting himself to writing. During the years 1725–26 he completed his commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, 春秋傳注 Ch'un-ch'iu chuan-chu, 4 chüan, of which a part was included in his collected work, 恕谷後集 Shu-ku hou-chi, 13 chüan, which contains his writings during the years 1703–27. In 1727 he made a last trip to the capital in a vain effort to convince Fang Pao of the fallacies in Sung philosophy. Returning from Peking in the same year (1727), he completed a political treatise which he entitled, 擬太平策 I t'ai-p'ing ts'ê, 7 chüan, which was printed in 1731. During an illness in 1728-29 he wrote a work, entitled, 天道偶側 T'ien-tao ou-ts'ê, which is perhaps no longer extant. Early in 1730 he was repeatedly asked by T'ang Chih-yü 唐執玉 (T. 益功, 薊門, chin-shih of 1703, 1669–1733), then governor-general of Chihli, and Wang Mu (see under Wang Yüan-ch'i) to help compile the provincial gazetteer, which was printed in 1735 under the title 畿輔通志 Chi-fu t'ung-chih, 120 + 1 chüan. Though he made several trips to Paoting to participate in the work, he resigned in 1731 owing to illness. In the following year (1732), realizing that his ailment was incurable, he wrote his own funerary inscription, and died early in 1733. He was privately canonized by his disciples as Wên-tzŭ 文子.
Through his repeated visits to the capital, where he could communicate with the scholars and writers from various parts of the country, Li Kung was able to gain a nation-wide hearing for the teachings of the Yen-Li School. He devoted the latter part of his life to writing—despite the professed aversion of the Yen-Li School to book-learning. He prepared a series of commentaries on the Classics under the titles: Lun-yü (論語) chuan-chu, 1 chüan; Ta-hsüeh (大學) chuan-chu; Chung-yung (中庸) chuan-chu, 1 chüan; and Chuan-chu wên (問), 1 chüan, which were accorded notice in the Ssŭ-k'u. Other of his writings are: 評乙古文 P'ing-i ku-wên, 1 chüan, a collection of annotations of selected passages from the Classics; 學射錄 Hsüeh-shê
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