High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles Li Ao (Chinese: 李翱; pinyin: Lǐ o) (772-841), courtesy name Xizhi (习之), was Chinese philosopher and prose writer of the Tang Dynasty. He was born in present-day Tianshui, Gansu, but some accounts relates he was from Zhao, Hebei. After achieving the degree of Jinshi in 798, he joined the imperial bureaucracy and served in the history department at Changan.