1192-1279
Scholar And Mathematician

Early Life. Li Zhi was born in Shandong, where his father practiced medicine. His father later became so unsure of his diagnoses that he ended his participation in the profession. Li Zhi then studied law but soon gave it up for the Confusican classics and became an expert on belles lettres. In 1191 the father obtained the Jinshi degree in the category of prose literature and was employed as a magistrate. Li Zhi had been tremendously intelligent and an enthusiastic student since boyhood, but his early years were influenced by his father's career. Li Zhi dedicated himself seriously to study and began to show a genius in literature.

Scholar-Official. Li Zhi became close friends with future eminent men of letters and emerged as a literary celebrity and well-educated scholar whose reputation became well known in Henan. In 1230, at the late age of thirty-eight...