[4] His first tournament as a professional was the 2008 Jiangsu Classic, where he finished last in his group, although he managed to beat the 2008 World Championship runner-up Ali Carter 2–0.

[6] This was the closest he came to reaching the main stage of a tournament during the season, with it ending when Li lost 9–10 to Daniel Wells in the second round of World Championship qualifying.

[10] Li enjoyed his best run in qualifying for the Welsh Open, reaching the final round by eliminating Ian Preece, Jin Long and Mike Dunn, but was then beaten 4–5 by Fergal O'Brien.

[15] He won three matches to reach the quarter-finals and then beat compatriot Zhang Anda 4–2 and established top 32 player Robert Milkins 4–1 in the semis.

[15] In his first final in a professional event Li faced Stuart Bingham and raced into a 3–1 lead with a high break of 83 before his opponent came back to win the last three frames to edge the match 4–3.

[15] Li beat Mark Joyce in his opening match of the 2013–14 season to reach the first round of the Wuxi Classic where he made three breaks over 50 to establish a 3–0 lead over world number three Judd Trump and went on to seal a 5–2 win, the best of his career so far.

[19] At the UK Championship, Li beat David Gilbert and Andrew Higginson both by 6–4 scorelines to face world number one Neil Robertson in the last 32.

[21] Li also qualified for the German Masters and China Open but lost 5–3 to ranking event winners Barry Hawkins and Marco Fu.

He defeated Nigel Bond, David Morris and Mark Joyce all by 5–2 scorelines to qualify for the Shanghai Masters, where he was beaten 5–3 by Stuart Bingham in the first round.

His second last 16 match in a ranking event came at the Indian Open thanks to wins over Allan Taylor and Stuart Carrington, but he lost 4–2 to Michael White.