Of the mandarin in China it is truly said that "there is nothing he isn't." Li is also Chief Secretary of the _Shan-hao-Tsung-Kuh_, "The Supreme Board of Reorganisation" of the province, the members of which are the four highest provincial officials next below the Governor (_Futai_)--viz., the Treasurer (_Fantai_), Provincial Judge (_Niehtai_), the Salt Comptroller, and the Grain Intendant.
Li, it may be said at once, is a man of no common virtue.

He is the father of seven sons and four daughters; he can die in peace; in his family there is no fear of the early extinction of male descendants, for the succession is as well provided against as it is in the most fertile Royal family in Europe.

His family is far spreading, and it is worth noting as an instance of the patriarchal nature of the family in China, that Li is regarded as the father of a family, whose members dependent upon him for entire or partial support number eighty persons.

He has had three wives.

His number one wife still lives at the family seat in Changsha; another secondary wife is dead; his present number two wife lives with him in Yunnan.