Li Yiji

Biography & Historical Record

Li Yiji (郦食其, Lệ Thực Kỳ) is not a Three Kingdoms officer. He was a Western Han persuader from Gaoyang in Chenliu who served Liu Bang (刘邦, Lưu Bang) and was boiled alive in 203 BC by the King of Qi. Luo Guanzhong puts his name into Chapter 86 only as a threat: Zhang Zhao (张昭, Trương Chiêu) tells Sun Quan (孙权, Tôn Quyền) to heat an oil cauldron and treat the Shu envoy Deng Zhi (邓芝, Đặng Chi) as Qi once treated Li Yiji. The catalog line “appears from Chapter 86” is therefore a literary citation, not a late-Han career. This page keeps the Early Han biography and the Wu palace scene in one article so the 汉字 郦食其 is never read as a Shu or Wu contemporary.

In the Shiji and Hanshu he is the hard-drinking scholar who joined Liu Bang in rags, talked walled towns into opening, and in 204–203 BC was sent to persuade Qi to submit. The King of Qi, Tian Guang (田广, Điền Quảng), received him and stood down the frontier. Han Xin (韩信, Hàn Tín), urged on by Kuai Tong (蒯通, Khoái Thông), attacked Qi anyway. The king believed he had been played and had Li Yiji thrown into a boiling cauldron. That death is the “Li Sheng persuades Qi” story Zhang Zhao wants to restage in Jianye. Vietnamese readers should use Lệ Thực Kỳ (郦, not Lý); the import form Lý Sĩ Kì is a catalog slip.

Role in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 86 (Qin Mi Displays Heavenly Debate; Xu Sheng Uses Fire to Defeat Cao Pi): After Cao Pi’s four-pronged attack on Shu fails and Lu Xun has kept Wu still, Shu sends Deng Zhi (邓芝, Đặng Chi) to reopen the alliance. Zhang Zhao (张昭, Trương Chiêu) calls him another persuader and advises Sun Quan (孙权, Tôn Quyền) to plant a great ding of boiling oil on the palace steps, line a thousand armed guards from the gate to the hall, and “charge him with the story of Li Yiji persuading Qi — cook him the same way, and see how he answers.” Sun Quan does it. Deng Zhi walks the lane of steel without a change of face, smiles at the bubbling oil, and will not kneel. Sun Quan shouts that he means to wag a three-inch tongue like Li Sheng (郦生) talking Qi around, and orders him into the cauldron. Deng Zhi laughs that Wu’s worthies seem afraid of one scholar; the insult breaks the tableau, the oil is not used, and the Wu–Shu peace is remade. Li Yiji never walks onstage. He is the boiled precedent hanging over the envoy.

Li Yiji (郦食其) — Historical & Literary Timeline

For the historical persuader, see Li Yiji on Wikipedia.

Key Relationships

Family

• Brother Li Shang (郦商, Lệ Thương), a Han general under Liu Bang — recorded in Shiji 97 / Hanshu 43. No Three Kingdoms kin. No spouse or children named in the novel citation.

Friends

• Liu Bang (刘邦, Lưu Bang), later Emperor Gaozu: the lord Li Yiji served as a roaming persuader in the Chu–Han war.
• In the novel only as a cited name: the Wu court that weaponizes his death is Zhang Zhao (张昭, Trương Chiêu) advising Sun Quan (孙权, Tôn Quyền).

Enemies

• Tian Guang (田广, Điền Quảng), King of Qi: boiled him in 203 BC after Han Xin’s attack made the Qi court think the peace talk was a ruse.
• Han Xin (韩信, Hàn Tín) and Kuai Tong (蒯通, Khoái Thông): their strike on Qi, while Li Yiji still sat at the Qi table, is what got him killed. They are not personal Three Kingdoms foes; they are the Han-war cause of the story Wu retells.

Other

• Deng Zhi (邓芝, Đặng Chi): the Shu envoy Chapter 86 puts in Li Yiji’s place beside the oil. He refuses the role, and the alliance holds.
• This is not a catalog-only ghost: the 汉字 appear in the Mao text of Chapter 86. It is also not a late-Han career. Era = Western Han; novel use = one diplomatic threat.