Background
Li Guangbi was born in 708, during the second reign of Emperor Zhongzong. HIs father, Li Kailuo (李楷洛), was a general of Khitan ancestry, whose achievements during the Kaiyuan era (713-741) of Emperor Zhongzong's nephew Emperor Xuanzong eventually led to his creation as the Duke of Ji Commandery. Li Guangbi's mother was Lady Li.
Li Guangbi was said to be careful in his behavior when young. He was capable in horsemanship and archery, and also studied the Book of Han. He started his army service when young, and was said to be decisive, strict, and full of strategies. After his father died, he inherited the title of the Duke of Ji, and was praised for not entering his wife's room (i.e., abstaining from sexual relations) during the observation of the mourning period.
At the start of Emperor Xuanzong's Tianbao era (742-756), Li Guangbi became the discipline officer at Shuofang Circuit (朔方, headquartered in modern Yinchuan, Ningxia). In 746, the military governor (jiedushi) of Shuofang and Hexi (河西, headquartered in modern Wuwei, Gansu) Circuits, Wang Zhongsi, made him a commanding general for Hexi Circuit, as well as the commander of Chishui Base (赤水軍, in modern Wuwei). Li and Geshu Han became the two key generals under Wang, while he was in command of Shuofang and Hexi. Wang often commented, "One day, Li Guangbi will have my command," and Li gained a reputation for being a good general. In 747, Li unsuccessfully tried to stop Wang from interfering with a campaign against Tufan commanded by the general Dong Yanguang (董延光), and when Dong failed, Wang was removed from his post. In 749, he was made the deputy military governor of Hexi, serving under Geshu, and was created the title of Duke of Su Commandery in his own right. In 752, was made the deputy protectorate general at Chanyu (單于, in modern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia). In 755, An Sishun, then the military governor of Shuofang, requested him as deputy. An was impressed by him and wanted to give a daughter to him in marriage, but Li declined and feigned an illness in order to resign and return to the capital Chang'an under Geshu's assistance.
Read more about this topic: Li Guangbi
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)