李颀

Li Qi was a Tang dynasty poet. Publicly available sources offer limited information about his life, official career, and birth and death dates, and details such as his nationality still await further verification. The library currently holds four of his works, including representative pieces such as "In Praise of Zhang Yin's Landscape" and "Miscellaneous Songs and Ballads: Song of Zheng Yingtao," as well as "Remarks on Poetry Ancient and Modern," which is attributed to him. His works are commonly classified under classical poetry and Eastern philosophy. Judging from the surviving pieces, Li Qi's poems often draw on landscapes, figures, and yuefu song lyrics, expressing observations of the natural world and reflections on life through inscriptions and chants. His language is concise and his imagery clear and distant, combining the ease of song-form verse with the discipline of regulated poetry. His works are sometimes cited in later poetry talks, offering some reference value for understanding the expansion of Tang poetic themes and the tradition of poetry criticism. Because historical records are scattered, details of his life should not be conjectured; readers may appreciate his style and influence through the texts themselves.