Li Qi was a Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

, with seven of his poems being included in the famous anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems

Three Hundred Tang Poems

The Three Hundred Tang Poems is an anthology of poems from the Chinese Tang Dynasty first compiled around 1763 by Sun Zhu , the Qing scholar also known as Hengtang Tuishi . Various later editions also exist...

. As translated by Witter Bynner

Witter Bynner

Harold Witter Bynner was an American poet, writer and scholar, known for his long residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at what is now the Inn of the Turquoise Bear.-Early life:...

, these are:

• "An Old Air"
• "A Farewell to my Friend Chen Zhangfu"
• "A Lute Song"
• "On Hearing Dong Play the Flageolet a Poem to Palace-attendant Fang"
• "On Hearing an Wanshan Play the Reed-pipe"
• "An Old War-song"
• "A Farewell to Wei Wan"

Biography

Li Qi was born in what is now Zhao County

Zhao County

Zhao County , a historic town called Zhaozhou in the past, is located in Hebei 40 km southeast of the provincial capital Shijiazhuang, and 280 km south of Beijing. Its total land area is 675 km² and total population is around 550,000...

 (Zhaoxian), Hebei Province

Hebei

' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...

, China. He later took up residence in what is now Dengfeng

Dengfeng

Dengfeng is a county-level city in Zhengzhou, Henan province. In ancient times, it was known as Yangcheng .Dengfeng has an area of 1220 square kilometers and a population of 630,000....

, in Henan Province

Henan

Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...

. The Li family of Zhao district (Zhaojun) was of the scholarly (shi) class]], one of the so-called "four occupations

Four occupations

The four occupations or "four categories of the people" was a hierarchic social class structure developed in ancient China by either Confucian or Legalist scholars as far back as the late Zhou Dynasty and is considered a central part of the Fengjian social structure...

".