Talk:Li Si

Untitled
He was both executed and chopped into two at the waist? Will someone clarify.


 * Execution was apparently by being bisected. Nasty, no? See cited references. Dragonbones 15:49, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

== Lǐ Sī is a werid name ==

Please see clarification at seal script page. He played a role in standardizing the already existing seal script (e.g., eliminating variant forms within the Qin script). The standardized form then supplanted regional variants. Dragonbones 14:24, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Apocryphal?
"Lǐ Sī was originally from the kingdom of Chu. When he was young,..." Is the above apocryphal, or does someone have evidence for it? I really wish people would provide more references. Dragonbones 15:53, 24 March 2006 (UTC)


 * from Britannica:


 * Li Si
 * born 280 BC?, Chu state, central China
 * died 208 BC, Xianyang, Shaanxi province


 * Minister of the Qin dynasty in China who utilized the ideas of Hanfeizi to make the Qin the first centralized Chinese empire.
 * His ordering of the “Qin bibliocaust”—the burning of all books—earned him the opprobrium of future generations of Confucian scholars
 * --Skyfiler 16:06, 25 March 2006 (UTC)


 * The information about Li Si in this article comes from the Records of the Grand Historian (史記) by Sima Qian. Evangeline (talk) 05:51, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Removed Shiji story
One day he saw a mouse eating filthy food inside the toilet, and took note that whenever someone or a dog came near, the mouse would hide in fear. Later he saw another mouse in the granary eating the food stored there, which was free of fear because no human or dog goes there. Thinking about the difference between the two mice, he came to understand that no matter how much talent a man might have, his life depended on his environment and the best is to be like the mouse living in the granary.
 * This story was probably invented by Sima Qian to emphasize Li Si's "nature".--Confuzion 05:04, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Still worth including the story, for what it's worth ("According to Shiji, ..."), since it's very famous. What exactly are your criteria for deciding between believable and unbelievable material in Shiji?  I'd be very eager to know.--98.111.164.239 (talk) 19:25, 25 September 2020 (UTC)

Did he runa so;rt of intelligence/spy angency?
I wasnt ot call it the Ch'in yin Lu, but hat's propbalbly not how it's spelled anymore.... Kairos (talk) 10:26, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

I don't think most words in the preceding sentence are how they're supposed to be spelled. 86.191.68.250 (talk) 20:14, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

Chancellor
More than one source mentions a "Wang Guan" as chancellor between Lu Buwei and Li Si, is this a mistake? --80.5.222.104 (talk) 13:17, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Not a mistake, except that the name is Wang Wan 王綰, not Wang Guan.--98.111.164.239 (talk) 05:31, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

Copyright or License Infringement
I hate to help Wikipedia, but this site http:// www .history-of-china. com/qin-dynasty/lisi.htm claims copyright on what are substantially complete passages of your text. This doesn't seem Fair Use either way. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.168.207.177 (talk) 19:48, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Burying the scholars = Burying Shamans?!
The last paragraph of the 'Career in Qin' section gives an account of the 'well-known historical event' Burning of books and burying of scholars that bears zero resemblance to that article, in which the historicity of anyone being buried or killed is questioned, and there is no mention of the 'shamans'. Something fishy going on here? 86.191.68.250 (talk) 20:12, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
 * At best it's original research and at worst complete nonsense. Should be removed, IMHO. Philg88 ♦talk 20:21, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Agreed. As I don't maintain an account I'm not going to do it because some idiot will almost certainly think I'm deleting content and vandalising. It definitely needs to go though, I couldn't find any reputable sources (any at all, actually) for this version of events and given that this is a pretty thorough article on the event, I would've expected one to have been found and included if there was any weight to it. 86.191.68.250 (talk) 04:02, 14 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Four years later, it's still there (and still nonsense).--98.111.164.239 (talk) 05:33, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

Invention of the waist chop
The article states that Li "invented" the waist chop - however that article states that it emerged in the Zhou dynasty, which seems to have been in power several hundred years before. GreenReaper (talk) 05:10, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

Et hijacked the world Percies (talk) 22:53, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

"Stanford University's John Knoblock"
He taught at Miami, not Stanford.--74.103.157.244 (talk) 04:53, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

In popular culture
Li Si appears only briefly in the earliest episodes of King's War, but plays a significant role in The Qin Empire IV (2019) (which does not yet have an article). Jackiespeel (talk) 18:41, 9 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Have altered the text appropriately - 'someone' can note which episodes of KW. Jackiespeel (talk) 19:38, 25 July 2021 (UTC)

Calligrapher
There has been a bit of an edit back and forth over the place of Li Si's reputation as a calligrapher in the lead. Certainly it should be there, but I do not see at present why it should be first on the list. The entry on Li Si in Knechtges and Chang's Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide describes him as a "Qin period statesman and prose writer". It doesn't mention his calligraphy at all. Loewe's Biographical Dictionary very briefly mentions the Cangjie pian, but focuses on Li's political career. The titles of Bodde's and Goldin's work, cited in this wikipedia article, clearly reference his role as a politician. Moreover, the body of this article does not mention his calligraphy once. Why then should calligraphy be mentioned first in the lead? I would like to hear from others on this before editing. Retinalsummer (talk) 23:59, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

English name pronunciation
Currently the English pronunciation is quite wrong. No one says "lee SEE" (or /liː ˈsiː/). Unless someone can find a source that says this is a common pronunciation for Li Si in English then I'm going to remove it and leave the correct Mandarin IPA. Retinalsummer (talk) 02:57, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 06:23, 27 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Li Si.jpg