A Textual Research of Li Zhi’s Name, Style, and Literary Name                                      

Ji Fahan

Abstract: Li Zhi, one of the “Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou”, who styled Zongyang, had the literary name of Futang. Both of his style and literary name were derived from the story of “Du Kui raising zhi (a kind of sacrificial vessel as well as stoup)” in the piece “Tan Gong (Part Two)” of The Book of Rites, which is the most reliable evidence that Li Zhi named “Zhi” but not “Shan”. Through teasing out signatures and signets on all his paintings, as well as historical and cultural analysis, we can find that why Li Zhi was mistaken as “Li Shan”, did not only lie in the collapse of classical studies since the Qin and Han Dynasties, and philological corruption between “jiao” and “yu”; but also in the writing error during the past three hundred years which had gradually caused confusion of the truth. In recent decades, the farfetched condition finally created a mistake hard to be corrected. Clarifying Li Zhi’s name, style, and literary name both illustrates the importance of inheriting the studies of excellent traditional culture, and reveals the danger of nowadays unfamiliarity with traditional culture.