Li Yijian (李夷簡) (756 – October 13, 822[1][2]), courtesy name Yizhi (易之), was an official of the Chinese Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Xianzong.
[4] Because of Li Yijian's heritage, he was, at the start of his official career, made the secretary general of Zheng County (鄭縣, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi).
Li Yi thus quickly headed for Tong Pass to have Zhu's emissary searched, and indeed, an order to summon the Lulong soldiers was found.
At one point, he was accused of faults and exiled to be a census officer at Qian Prefecture (虔州, in modern Ganzhou, Jiangxi).
Later in the year, when Emperor Xianzong was set to commission the powerful eunuch Tutu Chengcui as the commander of the imperial forces against the warlord Wang Chengzong, who controlled Chengde Circuit (成德, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei), Li Yijian was one of the officials who opposed Tutu's commission, along with Li Yuansu (李元素), Li Yong, Xu Mengrong (許孟容), Meng Jian (孟簡), Lü Yuanying (呂元膺), Mu Zhi (穆質), and Dugu Yu (獨孤郁).
[3] Later, Li Yijian was made the military governor (jiedushi) of Shannan East Circuit (山南東道, headquartered in modern Xiangfan, Hubei).
By the time that Li was military governor, the originally stationed Jiangxi soldiers had largely died, but Shannan East was still receiving funds for them.
After three years, he was transferred to Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan) to serve as its military governor.
Li Yijian submitted a suggestion that because Emperor Xianzong had great accomplishments during his reign, he should be given a temple name that referred to him as Zu (祖) rather than Zong (宗).