Quick Answer: Who Was Li Si?
Li Si (李斯, Lǐ Sī, died 208 BCE) was a minister and later chancellor of Qin (秦, Qín). He advised Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇, Qín Shǐhuáng), the ruler who founded China’s first imperial dynasty in 221 BCE.[4]
- Before unification: Li persuaded the king to abandon a plan to expel advisers from other states.[1]
- After conquest: He favored putting conquered territories under appointed officials.[2]
- Book burning: The emperor approved Li’s proposal to restrict the circulation of certain texts in 213 BCE.[4]
The biography by Sima Qian preserves Li’s arguments and also gives a narrative of his fall at court.
As a young adviser from Chu (楚, Chǔ), Li Si was among the people Qin planned to expel. He answered by showing how earlier rulers had benefited from advisers born elsewhere. After conquest, a different memorial shows him using the authority of the new empire to restrict private possession and discussion of certain texts.
How Li Si Rose in Qin
Li came from Chu and studied with the philosopher Xunzi (荀子, Xúnzǐ). He entered Qin service through the chancellor Lü Buwei’s household and eventually advised the king.[1]
The Memorial Against Expelling Guest Officials (谏逐客书, Jiàn Zhúkè Shū) makes a practical argument. Qin’s earlier rulers had gained strength by employing outsiders. If the king expelled these advisers because of their origins, he would hand useful people to his rivals.[1]
How Li Si Helped Organize the Empire
After the conquests, Chancellor Wang Wan proposed placing royal sons in distant territories. Li, still serving as a judicial official, favored administration through commanderies and counties. He argued that even princes related to the ruling house could become rivals over time. The First Emperor accepted his position.[2]
The Qin dynasty also issued standards for writing, weights and measures.[2] Later texts associate Li with small seal script (小篆, xiǎozhuàn) and credit him with compiling a model text for learning characters.[5]
Even surviving Qin plates announcing standards show differences in the forms of written characters. Those objects give a view of how an imperial standard operated in practice.[3]
The Book-Burning Order and Its Limits
At court in 213 BCE, a scholar argued that the emperor should look to earlier dynasties for models of government. Li’s response called for the destruction of privately held copies of certain classics and philosophical writings. He proposed keeping copies under official custody and exempting works on practical subjects such as medicine, agriculture and divination.[4]
The Qin annals describe a separate investigation and executions in 212 BCE. The emperor orders that inquiry in the account, which does not assign Li the role he had in the previous year’s book decree.[2]
How Li Si Lost Power
According to Li’s biography, when the First Emperor died in 210 BCE, Li joined Zhao Gao (赵高, Zhào Gāo) in arranging the succession of Huhai (胡亥, Húhài). The plotters sent an order in the late emperor’s name to his elder son Fusu (扶苏, Fúsū) and the commander Meng Tian. Fusu obeyed the order to take his own life.[1]
Li remained chancellor under Huhai. Zhao Gao eventually controlled the investigation of Li on charges of rebellion. The biography says Li confessed under torture and was executed in the Qin capital.[1]
FAQs About Li Si
Was Li Si a Legalist?
Historians often use the label for his approach to governing Qin. His advice to the First Emperor put centralized authority and control of public debate ahead of reviving earlier models of rule.[4]
Did Li Si Invent Small Seal Script?
Later accounts credit Li with helping codify it for Qin. Small seal forms drew on earlier writing, and Qin inscriptions continued to vary.[3][5]
When Did Li Si Die?
Li Si was executed in 208 BCE, under the Second Emperor of Qin.[4]
Sources
[1] Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian, Biography of Li Si
[2] Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian, Annals of the First Emperor of Qin
[3] Imre Galambos. The Myth of the Qin Unification of Writing in Han Sources
[4] Columbia University, Asia for Educators. Memorials by Li Si as Recorded by Sima Qian
[5] Journal of Sinographic Philologies and Legacies. Writing as Control, Writing as Morality