Li Bi'an

Li Bi’an and Li Yeting were brothers, living in Kaihua, Ningbo, and tracing their ancestry to the Jiang family. Their mother, Lady Ye, was widowed young and raised the two sons alone; she died in 1857, the seventh year of the Xianfeng era, at the age of 89. The two brothers jointly buried their parents on the Jiang family hilltop at Xiaogang, Linhai, where they built a tomb and a dwelling called Helu Mountain Villa, a site locals regard as a fengshui blessed place. Li Yeting left a family maxim emphasizing the transmission of the clan and the ways of governance.

Bi’an spent his whole life in his home village, serving his widowed mother, fulfilling his filial duties, and educating his nephews. To this end he invited a famed local tutor, Zhu Laofuzi, to teach. His nephews Tingtao and Lianshui, along with Yeting’s son Meitang, all studied together in the family school. Lianshui, after passing the county examination (xiucai) and then succeeding in the provincial examinations, in the Guangxu era’s second year (the year of Bingzi), in the metropolitan (enke) examination ranked 165th and earned the jinshi degree, leaving his name on the Jinshi list in the Beijing Temple of Confucius. The stone stele records his name as “Li Lian,” though some records refer to him as “Li Gao-Lian.” Afterward, Lianshui served in the capital as a clerk in the Ministry of Revenue.

In front of the Xiaogang Li family residence, a flagpole was erected, clearly visible to ships entering the port. Bi’an had clear plans for the education of his nephews and for the family’s commercial affairs: at age 16, Tingtao was sent to Shanghai to assist his uncle in running the business; henceforth, all Li family members would be required to apprentice for three years in their own family’s enterprise before they could receive the family’s support. The Li family’s arrangements for education, commerce, and governance in the late Qing period became an important section of local genealogies.